Samsung,s new SGH-X600 model is the manufacturer,s first candy bar style GSM handset with a built-in camera. Also: meet the SGH-X100, the SGH-X600,s little brother.

Moving away from the recent trend of clamshell-only form factors for high-end handsets, Samsung has now introduced its first candy bar style mobile phone with a built-in camera. That,s not all, however, as according to Samsung, the dual-band GSM 900/1800 MHz SGH-X600 also comes with built-in flash. And to top it off, the SGH-X600 comes complete with a camera-less little brother, the SGH-X100, which offers an almost identical feature set.

The SHG-X600 is Samsung,s first candy bar style handset to feature an integrated digital camera

Sporting a 16-bit display capable of displaying up to 65,536 colours at a resolution of 128 x 128 pixels, the SGH-X600 is a step away from how Samsung has preferred its most recent high-end phones to be made: as clamshells. Clearly aimed at consumers, the new handset offers broad messaging support with both SMS, EMS and also MMS under its belt - the latter of which supports sending and receiving messages up to 80 KB in size.

The built-in camera of the SGH-X600 is of the VGA (0,3 megapixel) variety, offering picture-taking at a resolution of 640 x 480 pixels. Digital zoom is present, as is contrast alignment, but what makes the SGH-X600 stand out amongst other camera phones is its inclusion of an integrated flash light - a feature which no other camera phone in the European market offers.

A whopping 9 MB of internal memory provides storage space for MMS messages, pictures and audio recordings, as well as up to 200 SMS messages and 1,000 phone book entries. Of this, 600 KB is set aside for storing J2ME applications and games, for which the phone supports MIDP 1.0. For browsing, the handset provides a WAP 2.0 compliant microbrowser and GPRS Class 10 - the latter of which can also be used to provide connectivity for other computing devices courtesy of the SGH-X600,s infrared port.

Lastly, 40-tone polyphonic ringtones are also on the feature list, all of which has been crammed into a package measuring 102 x 43 x 20 mm and weighing a minute 80 g. The small size has a noticeable impact on battery life, however, as according to Samsung, the SGH-X600 will offer relatively short standby and talk times of up to 200 and 3,5 hours, respectively.
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